Attention board members: Have you evaluated your executive director/association executive/ president/CEO yet this year? If not, why not?

Being a nonprofit or association board member is an important job that has a number of critical responsibilities. As a whole, the board of directors bears a legal responsibility for governance of the organization. This means that the board must ensure the organization’s wellbeing. As a part of this effort, the board is tasked with reviewing the performance of the senior executive on an annual basis.

Depending on the organization, this person may have the title of executive director, association executive, president or CEO, to name a few.

In our work with nonprofit organizations and associations, we often find that this evaluation gets delayed or put on the back burner until it often isn’t completed at all. We also find that board members sometimes don’t fully understand their role and the importance of performing this essential task. 

All too often evaluations are undertaken only when the board has become unhappy with their chief executive. Performing annual performance evaluations keeps executives aware of the importance of their roles to the overall success of the organization. The evaluation is also important to the board because it helps to identify any weaknesses in leadership that have the potential for negative effects on the organization.

Everyone should be very clear about when and how evaluations should take place, preferably done around the same time each year.

Our Competency-based Leadership Evaluation Framework© (CLEF) takes the guesswork out of evaluations and gets you the data your board needs to see whether or not your organization is headed in the right direction.

The CLEF was designed exclusively for nonprofits and associations and is based on six components that are critical to the leader’s success in their role.

This doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Let us help!

What’s included:

• Framework guide that walks you through the six components of the Competency-based Leadership Evaluation Framework© (CLEF)
• Video walkthrough so you know how to use the evaluation and exactly what you need to do to deploy it to your board and any selected stakeholders
• Google form for online data collection, as well as a paper-based PDF template for evaluation participants
• An optional self-evaluation for the leader being evaluated
• Best practices tip sheet
• Sample communication for survey participants
• BONUS! Goal planner and tracker template
• BONUS! PowerPoint evaluation report template